Don’t hold your breath

“Ottawa’s climate-change focus now turns to reaching a detailed national climate strategy with the provinces by early March while also moving toward a North American agreement on energy and environmental issues.”

Neither will happen … some provinces will balk and the US congress will not agree to whatever deal the administration signed.

Even if, by some miracle, Canadian provinces and the USA came “on board” both China and India will continue to warm the planet.

But, let’s just pretend for a moment that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna actually believe that climate change can be reversed and that Canada can and should keep its promises. What to do?

The obvious solution is to change the ways in which Canadians, you and I, use carbon … they, the Liberals government, can do that in much the same way their predecessors changed how we, Canadians, use tobacco … they can tax it.

We know that ‘sin taxes’ work … they aren’t super efficient or hyper-effective but they’re better than whatever is in second or third place.

But that’s not what the Liberals will do.

If they did millions of Canadian voters, including most of those who fuss and fret about climate change, would punish them at the polls.

No, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister McKenna have done what CBC and Vogue, the Toronto Star and Vanity Fair demanded* and that’s what really matters. the fact ~ and I assert it is a fact ~ that Canada will neither meet nor even try to meet its COP21 commitments is neither here nor there.